Today’s Reading: The Mercy of Gods

The Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey

The title is a slight fib as I actually finished this book a couple of weeks ago, but I was not doing a very good job of updating my blog then so I am making up for it now.

If you’re familiar with James S.A. Corey, you know that he (actually, a duo of authors working together) is the author behind The Expanse series of books. While I watched the first three seasons of the show and enjoyed them, I dropped off and never finished the series, nor did I read the books. If I start a series that later extends to several books, like Frontlines by Marko Kloos or Old Man’s War by John Scalzi, I am OK with that. But when the entire series is completed I am intimidated to start a lengthy collection because the slightly obsessive part of me likes to finish what I start (which I don’t always do, see above). As I had never read anything by James S.A. Corey I thought this first book was a good place to start. I figured if I didn’t like it I could stop and not continue forth with the other books that were planned and scheduled.

Cutting to the chase, I did enjoy this book so much that in the middle of reading it I reserved the next novella in the series, Livesuit.

I am not the best at reviewing books that I’ve read, other than saying whether I liked it or not and giving it an almost arbitrary star-rating, but I will say that the questions of morality and ethics applied to an alien species predominant in the first half of the book is what really drew me in.

I’ll attempt to be as spoiler-free as possible, but the gist of the book is about a human world, like ours, but quite some time in the future. So much so that the humans that live there no longer recall how they ended up on this planet, only knowing that at some point in their history they came from someplace else, but even the name “Earth” seems to have been forgotten. It just so happens that another alien species, Carryx, has decided that they would like to colonize this world. The Carryx are vastly superior technologically and have subjugated many other species into their empire. Basically, they find planets to colonize and if there are sentient creatures there, like humans, they take only the best of the best and give them challenges to complete to prove that their species is of value in their empire. If not, the species are eliminated. If they are valuable, they become a part of the Carryx unless they prove they have exhausted their worth.

Again, what really drew me in was the analogy of humans subjugating other species, such as livestock or insects. Humans are more intelligent, so do they consider the wants and thoughts of lesser species? As the Carryx believe themselves to be the peak of evolution in the universe, they consider all other species to be less than them and only worth continuing if they have worth, whether it be as architects, project managers, police, or warriors. All others are evolutionary dead ends in their view, and should be treated as such.

But, are human ethics and morality universal, should they be applied to an alien species?

While that isn’t the entire focus of this novel, it is a question that is posed several times.

A warning: this book ends in such a way where it’s a good place to stop, but it’s also clear that there are more books coming. Done well, I am good with this, and this book ends things at a good point. When it’s done poorly, when it becomes clear that the entire point of book is to get to the next book, that’s when I get annoyed (case in point, the first book in the latest DragonLance series).

Again, I already planned on reading the subsequent novella while reading this book, and the next novel is slated for release this Autumn; after this first book I think I’m in for the long haul.